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One month with a brace as an adult

Posted on 8:07pm Sunday 17th Apr 2016

One month with a brace as an adult

I can’t believe it’s been over a month already. I’ve actually already had my top fixed appliance (brace) on for 5 weeks and 3 days. It now feels like a part of me and we’re so used to seeing it, it feels like I’ve always had it. I’ve been doing my best to remember to take a photo every week to create a time lapse at the end, but may have forgotten once. Time just goes so quickly nowadays.

Here are a few things I wanted to note down now I’m over a month in:

Still only chewing on the right side of my mouth. Mainly eating soft food. I will only eat with a knife and fork or with hands if very soft or can be broken into tiny pieces.

Have to brush with my electric toothbrush only. It feels too bizarre and scrapey with my manual – it makes me cringe, kind of like a knife scraping on a plate/fingers down a blackboard sensation!

No obvious movement yet – perhaps my peg tooth has moved back a little. I’m curious to see if the orthodontist notices a difference at the next appointment.

No one really bats an eyelid when I talk to them. I thought more people would look at me strangely, but it’s been no different to normal. There are still several family members and friends I haven’t seen, so they might ask. I wonder if people feel rude asking – even some family members haven’t commented! I don’t mind talking about it though if anyone is curious about anything, so they can ask away! Or perhaps they just don’t really care.

If I press lightly on the brace on a few teeth I can instantly feel the pressure, but not on others. I can mainly feel this on the front teeth and the back teeth don’t feel under pressure at all now.

Went to a party with finger food and avoided eating anything! Didn’t fancy mushing quiche all over the brace or sandwich and other food was hard salad sticks which I can’t eat anyway. First time I’ve avoided social eating because of the brace. I could have asked for cutlery, but didn’t want to make my eating obvious!

Photos of me showing brace look awful, but I hate photos of me anyway, so not unusual for me to try and avoid being captured!

All is well. The experience is just fine and I have no less confidence with the brace on which was one of my main concerns. Three and a half weeks until my first tightening – then I might be moaning in a blog post about the pain!!